Sen. Bill Kintner of Papillion made the comment during debate on the DREAMers driver’s license bill (LB 623) on May 13th, referring to a crackdown on illegal immigration.

“Now, let me give up a successful policy, Sen. (John) McCollister. You ever hear of President Eisenhower? How about Operation Wetback? They went around and they absolutely rounded them up and shipped them out,” Kintner said during legislative debate. “Now, I’m not saying do that now, but that’s what they did and that’s actually a policy that worked.”

Kintner acknowledged the derogatory nature of the term.

“Obviously, we don’t use the term wetback anymore, but that was what they called it,” Kintner stated.

Kintner claimed during the debate the federal government has failed to crack down on illegal immigration, stating several administrations have tried, but have failed to effectively catch illegal immigrants and deport them.

“I mentioned President Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback and that was a successful one, as offensive as the name is to some people, that was a very effective program that shut down illegal immigration,” Kintner said.

The next day as debate resumed on LB 623, Kintner took to the floor and read excerpts from two letters he received about his comments the previous day; one praising his stance, one critical of his comments.

The writer of the critical letter claimed Kintner had single-handily made Papillion look like the bigot capital of Nebraska and criticized Kintner for his “…ignorant, bigoted use of the term wetback…”

“Of course, I emailed him back and said, well if I can’t say Operation Wetback, what am I supposed to say, what am I supposed to call it?,” Kintner replied during floor debate.

Some condemned Kintner for using the term at the time.

The Nebraska Latino-American Commission this weekend approved a resolution stating it is appalled Kintner used the term during legislative debate, which it released this week.

Executive Director Lazaro Spindola says that term is unacceptable in any context.

“If those derogatory terms keep being used by our highest political representatives, what kind of message are we sending to the general population, I mean what kind of education are they providing to the general population?” Spindola asks in an interview with Nebraska Radio Network affiliate KLIN.

Spindola rejects the defense made by Kintner that he merely used the official name coined by the Eisenhower Administration in the 50s.

“In fact, there have been derogatory terms applied even to white people; to the Irish, the Italians, etc. But, as time went by, we as a society came to realize the use of these terms wasn’t exactly correct,” Spindola says. “So, we have refrained from using them afterwards.”

Spindola says the term should never be used.

“You know what, during World War II, it was accurately historic to refer to the Germans as Krauts, the Japanese as Chinks, to the Italians as Dagos. Those were official terms. And yet, you never hear that kind of terminology anymore,” according to Spindola.

The resolution states, “The term is an offensive, derogatory racial slur mocking Mexicans who traversed the Rio Grande River to get to America and ascribed to those of Latino descent.”